Let’s take a trip down memory lane where the sudden financial meltdown in 2008 gave rise to shocking conditions in Marinaleda where people were in a state of starvation.

To address this issue, Mayor Gordillo released a police order to raid grocery stores for the starving poor. The policemen had the local food banks stacked with rice, beans, and oil fresh from shopping carts in the raided groceries.

According to Mayor Gordillo, what he did is not an act of robbery, but rather a non-violent act of civil disobedience.

“There are many families who can’t afford to eat, and in the 21st century this is an absolute disgrace. Food is a right, not something with which you speculate,” he explained.

Fast forward to years later, Marinaleda, a small town in Andalusia, Spain with 2,700 people, has been able to stabilize a system controlled by the state itself.

Marinaleda has become a place where people can work together on shared farms. As a result, they get a remarkable 1,200 a month.

If you look at the big picture, Andalusia has 37 % unemployment rate (and 55 % for young people), but zoom into Marinaleda, one of its towns, and you’ll see that this little village has zero unemployment!

To top that off, the government of Marinaleda is sponsoring housing materials so that everyone can build their own houses for free. In exchange, the people are required to pay a monthly tax of $19. Although they are not allowed to sell the house (because the government of Marinaleda still owns the property), the house is theirs to live in at the end of the day.

“We need to rethink our values, the consumer society, the value we place on money, selfishness and individualism”, Mayor Gordillo says. “Marinaleda is a small example, and we want this experience to extend throughout the world.”